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Lunch Seminar by the Center for Peacemaking Practice
Lunch Provided!
Please RSVP
Buddhism, Conflict Resolution, and Democratic Transition in Myanmar
Noon – 2:00 pm, October 8 (Tuesday), 2013
Room 5183, Metropolitan Building, School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (S-CAR), George Mason University
3434 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22201
Presenter: Tatsushi Arai, PhD, Fellow, Center for Peacemaking Practice, S-CAR-GMU & Associate Professor of Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation, School for International Training (SIT) Graduate Institute, Vermont.
This seminar will be divided into two parts:
Part 1: Noon to 1:00pm, In Search of a Buddhist Theory of Structural Peace: The Case of Myanmar
Myanmar is a Buddhist-majority society undergoing a historical transition from military rule to democracy. Buddhist communities play a decisive role in this process because their moral guidance helps shape policy choices and public opinion. A series of in-depth interviews that the presenter has conducted in five towns and cities of Myanmar sought to understand influential Buddhist leaders’ perspectives on social conflict, structural violence, and reconciliation as these issues critically affect the country’s peace process and democratic transition. Analysis of their perspectives suggests a useful framework of conflict analysis and resolution that is complementary to, yet distinct from, social scientific thinking of western origin. Articulating a Buddhist theory of peace and conflict also enables the practitioners of this faith tradition to become more self-conscious of how their practice of inner spiritual transformation facilitates or hinders the transformation of social structures that reproduce violence and poverty in Myanmar.
Part 2: 1:00-2:00pm, Transforming the Cycle of Violence in Rakhine State: A Multi-Dimensional Approach to Inter-Communal Coexistence in Myanmar
Transforming the historical conflict between the majority Burmans and diverse indigenous minorities is an essential requirement for Myanmar’s democratic transition and nation-building. The inter-racial, inter-religious violence that broke out in 2012 in Rakhine State, a western region of Myanmar bordering Bangladesh, is especially complex and intractable partly because of the legal status of statelessness that the majority Buddhist community assigns to the Rakhine-based Muslim community known as Rohingyas. This presentation will report on lessons learned from a series of workshops and dialogues that the speaker has conducted with leaders and members of deeply divided communities, as well as with prominent religious, political, and civil society leaders whose perspectives have decisively influenced Burmese public opinion on this conflict. The presentation will also outline a profile of a possible long-term solution derived from these dialogues.
Profile of the speaker: Dr Tatsushi Arai is a mediator, dialogue facilitator, and peace-building trainer with extensive experience in diverse conflict-affected societies in the Asia Pacific, South Asia, the African Great Lakes, the Middle East, and North America. Currently, he holds various professional responsibilities at George Mason University, SIT Graduate Institute, Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research, and several nongovernmental organizations. Dr Arai’s scholarship integrates his empirical research and practitioner experience in war-to-peace transition, sustainable development, cross-cultural communication, and disaster relief. His recent publications include: Creativity and Conflict Resolution: Alternative Pathways to Peace, and Clash of National Interests: China, Japan, and the East China Sea Territorial Dispute (as co-editor/author). Based on his recent field research and practitioner workshops in Myanmar, he is currently writing on the role of religious communities and inter-ethnic relations in Myanmar’s democratic transition and nation-building.